Inositol is the reason Belle Balance exists. At 4,000mg per sachet it is around half the weight of the entire product and more than twice the weight of every other active combined.

4,000mg is not a number we chose for the front of the pack. It is the daily intake used almost universally in the human research — typically as two 2,000mg doses — and it is the single thing that decides whether a product sits inside the studied range or outside it. Some inositol supplements on the UK market carry 2,000mg or less.

It is a naturally occurring compound — a sugar alcohol, chemically speaking, though it is not a sugar in the dietary sense and it is not sweet. It occurs in ordinary food, with beans, pulses, wholegrains, nuts and some fruit among the richer sources.

Your body also makes its own. It is synthesised from glucose, principally in the kidneys, which is the reason inositol is not classed as a vitamin: a vitamin is something the body cannot produce and must obtain from the diet. Inositol was once called vitamin B8 and the name stuck around in places long after it stopped being accurate.

This is why there is no percentage on our label. Inositol has no Nutrient Reference Value in UK law, because there is no official figure for how much a person needs. There is nothing to print a percentage against, and any brand showing one has invented it.

4,000mg is four grams, and four grams of powder does not fit in capsules.

A size 0 capsule — about the largest most people will swallow comfortably — holds somewhere in the region of 500mg of powder depending on how densely it packs. Four grams is therefore around eight capsules a day.

That arithmetic explains most of what you see on the shelf. A capsule product at this dose has two options: ask for six or eight capsules daily, or carry a smaller dose and not mention the research range. Some take the second option, which is why some UK inositol supplements carry 2,000mg or less.

A sachet dissolved in water carries the whole amount in one serving. The trade-off is honest enough: a powder you drink has to taste of something, which is why there is cranberry flavour in the formula at all. A capsule can be tasteless. A four-gram dose cannot.

One 8g sachet daily, stirred into 250–300ml of water, as the pack directs. Less water makes it thicker and more concentrated in flavour. Stir for 20–30 seconds until it has fully dissolved; no shaker or blender needed.

With or without food, and at whatever time you will actually remember. There is no requirement to take it with a meal. Consistency matters more than timing, and the best time is the one that survives a busy week.

If you want the longer version — mixing, timing and what to expect — our journal article How to Take Inositol covers it in more detail than belongs on this page.

The other ingredient pages describe the trials: who took part, how many, how they were run. This one does not list them at all, and there are two reasons.

The legal reason

Inositol has no authorised health claim in Great Britain. Describing what clinical trials of a substance found, on a page selling that substance, is understood in UK law as making a health claim by implication — whatever tense or hedging is used. We are not permitted to make one, so we do not, and we are not going to do it obliquely either. Hinting at a claim we cannot state is worse conduct than staying silent, not a clever way around it.

The reason that actually matters

The clinical literature on inositol is concentrated almost entirely in women with a specific diagnosed condition, recruited through clinical services and assessed against clinical endpoints. Belle Balance is a food supplement and you are not in a trial. Results obtained in a diagnosed population, under supervision, against measured outcomes, do not transfer to general use — and a page that recited those results next to an order button would be inviting exactly that transfer.

So even if we were permitted to summarise that literature, we should not. It would be poor reasoning dressed as transparency. What we can tell you is verifiable and it is on this page: the compound, the dose, the form, the specification figures and how they compare to the range the research uses.

• We have not tested this finished product in anyone. No trial has been run on Belle Balance. Evidence about an ingredient is not evidence about a formulation, and we hold ourselves to that distinction throughout this Hub.
• The research usually split the dose and we do not. Trials at 4,000mg typically gave it as two 2,000mg doses across the day. Belle Balance delivers it in one. We chose a single daily sachet because a supplement taken twice a day is a supplement people stop taking — but it is a difference from the protocol, and we would rather say so than let the dose figure imply an exact match.
• This formulation has no clinical history of its own. It carries the compound and the dose the research used. That is a reason for the choice, not a result we have demonstrated.
• Inositol is not a vitamin or a mineral in UK law. It has no Nutrient Reference Value, so there is no percentage to print and no official benchmark for what an adequate amount is.
• Our figures are manufacturer figures. The 4,000mg is our specification, taken from our manufacturer's formulation table.

• Inositol has no authorised health claim in Great Britain. We make none, on this page or anywhere else.
• We do not claim this product treats, prevents or reduces the risk of any condition.
• We do not claim 4,000mg is a dose that has been shown to do anything for you. We claim it is the dose the research uses, which is a different and much smaller statement.

What we claim is the composition: 4,000mg of myo-inositol per sachet.

Worth knowing

Inositol is well tolerated at the intakes used in research. Digestive effects — wind, loose stools, nausea — are reported mainly at intakes several times ours. Belle Balance is not suitable during pregnancy or breastfeeding. If you are taking medication or have a medical condition, speak to your GP or pharmacist before taking any supplement. A supplement is not a substitute for medical advice, and if something is wrong the right first step is the surgery, not a sachet.